Tag: dog travel

The City of Light is dog friendly, if you know your way around ‘Is that a service dog?” the flight attendant asked as she pointed to my bichon frise curled up beside me on the airplane seat. “No, he’s not” I said. “Then he needs to be in his carrier under the seat in front of you” she replied. I obliged as she walked down the aisle. Within minutes I returned Marcel beside me, only this time under the blanket I had draped across my lap, where he slept for the final leg of our flight from San Diego to Paris. Our short layover in Philadelphia gave enough time to take Marcel outside before the remaining eight hours of air travel. For August and September, The City of Light was home to mon petit chien and me. Our quest was to find pet-friendly hotels, restaurants, activities, and boutiques for my upcoming travel guide, “The Privileged Pooch in Paris.” Such a lengthy visit required an apartment rental as home base. An arduous search by a Parisian rental agency for a landlord who allows pets came up nil. Ironic, given the capital’s dog-loving reputation. (Illustration by CRISTINA MARTINEZ BYVIK) But VRBO.com, a website pairing homeowners with vacationers, proved fortuitous. My first two emails resulted in a Saint-Germain-Des-Prés house for the first month, and an Ile Saint Louis apartment built in 1643 for the remainder of my stay. Renting a variety of pied-à-terres allowed me to experience different areas of the city, and provided space to host visiting family and friends. Twenty arrondissements (districts) make up the metropolis of Paris, the first being in center city and the higher numbers being ethnic enclaves on the outskirts. These districts, covering roughly 41 square miles, are clumped into neighborhoods — the Marais, Montparnasse, Montmartre, Le